Part 22: Takeshi - Second Day - Part 10

Track—Zweitestock






"I wanna rest like Tsugumi said...I think I'll hold off for now. Once you get older like me, tag takes its toll on your body."


"Hmph. Older, huh...? Well, you must be older than you look."


"...What?"


"Yeah, and besides Takeshi doesn't seem too sharp anyways. I'll bet he'd be caught right away."


"You don't know what you're talkin' 'bout!"

I stood up menacingly.


"Oh, does that mean Takeshi wants to plaaaay now?"


"Come on, Takepyon It'll be fun!"


"Wait a sec! I didn't say that I'm playin'!"


"Oh, you're not going to play?"


"Surrendering without a fight? Sounds like a chicken to me."


"...OH! Alright! I'll play your dumb game!"

I was overruled by the majority. Well, I figured it was better than sitting there doing nothing.... I was playing, but I wasn't happy about it.
So much for passing.



Tsugumi glanced at me out of the corner of her eye and then looked away.


"...Shall we leave the lights off?"

The Kid whispered this to me.


"The emergency lights are on, but it's kinda dark. You okay with that?"


"Let's go with what Tsugumi thinks."


"But this doesn't seem like tag at all..."

Track—Weißer Hund




“Give me a flashlight to go!"

Coco pulled out a flashlight as she recited the rhyme.


"Yeah. Well, kick the can is pretty cool. Don't you think?"

Coco lit up her face with the flashlight from under her chin trying to get everyone to agree.


"Kick the can?"


"What is kick the can?"


"Um...it's...um... You pick someone to be it in a dark place. Then everyone hides..."


"Hey that's just hide and seek tag."


"No it's not! Listen!"


"Oh, sorry..."


"The person that's 'it' puts a can somewhere in the room... And the people that hide try to kick the can before the person that's 'it' finds them. If a person kicks the can, then he or she wins. If the person that's 'it' finds somebody and steps on the can calling out his or her name... Then the found person can't kick the can anymore and loses."


"Oh, so that's a kind of hide and seek, right?"
Don’t start this again.


"Oh, well everybody knows how to play that."


"No, it's kick the can."


"That's a glorified kind of hide and seek."
You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?


"It's kick the can!"


"KICK THE CAN!!"
Yup.


"Anyway, who cares about the name? Let's play."


"...Geez."

As we were getting all pumped for the game, Tsugumi let out a sigh.


"You are SO noisy..."

Tsugumi quietly stood up and walked to the far exit, leaving the room.


"Is Tsugumi mad?"


"Who knows? Anyway... She'll come back after a while. You'll see."

[Music—Stop]

After that... We decided who was 'it' using rock, paper, scissors.

Track—Klamauk


"Ready go!"
Best two out of three!


"Damn. I lost!"
Not that it helps any.


"Alright. So Takeshi is 'it' first."


"Oh goodie"


"Good luck."

Everyone was grinning at me. Damn.


"Here you go, Takeshi."

The Kid handed me the empty can.


"But...hiding anywhere is okay, as long as it's on this third floor. Okay, let's hide. Ready..."


"W-wait a sec!"

I held up a hand hurriedly stopping You from sending everyone off.


"You, what did you just say?"


"Let's hide."


"No. Before that."


"You can hide anywhere on this third floor."


"...Are you serious? Not just the Conference Room?"


"This room is too small. And there aren't that many places to hide."


"But the WHOLE third floor?"


"Oh, of course, the areas you can't walk from here are off limits. And the emergency corridors and stairs are no good either."


"That's still too big. It's not fair to the person that's 'it'. While he's looking, he's sure to get it from somebody else..."


"I think it's fine."


"It's not fine. The game won't work. This is a MAJOR problem."


"Gosh. You sure complain a lot."
He got acetone sprayed in his face earlier. I think he’s entitled for once.


"Well, he would certainly appear to be at a disadvantage..."


"I will dim the lights on the third floor...but in return I will make it so that sounds carry better. If sounds carry, then you can hear when someone moves across a corridor with water. That will give the person who is 'it' an advantage. And I will make it so that you know when people are moving. I will synthesize footsteps and dispatch the data to voice converters."


"Alright. Please do."


"Oh, but...what should I do if I should get to the can first?"


"Huh? Oh..."


"That's right. You can't kick the can!"

We'd only just noticed. If we played tag, we just would have had to ban Sora from jumping about as an image...


"Then you can be with me, Sora. We'll make it so that Sora and I have to be within a yard of each other when we hide or when we are 'it'. So I can kick the can..."


"Okay? Let's try it this way."


"Okay. Thanks."

On top of that we made Sora promise not to use the bio scan or LeMU to monitor the location of anyone.


"Yeah, that makes it fair then."


"Alright. All set."

[Music—Stop]

It looked like everyone was ready.



During that time the others had scattered out around the floor.

Track—Drittestock



I opened my eyes. I put the can by my feet. I looked around in the dim light. There was no one around.

(I guess I'll have to go look...)

I faced the nearby door. The sound of my shoes on the ground reverberated as a deep sound. It sounded unnatural. It was kind of like I imagined sonar would sound.

(I see.... So this is what Sora means by making the sound bigger...)

I felt like I was in a submarine. I thought I'd best be careful of my footsteps to make sure they weren't heard by the others. All of the lights were off, but the doors opened automatically.

First, I thought I would head for the...



Yes, we’re going to go through the Kick the Can section for the first run-through. There’s no point in complaining about this section when there are people following the thread that haven’t experienced it for themselves yet.